What is going on with
the reefs & how does restoration help?
Climate change & coral reefs
The science is clear: climate change is the biggest threat to coral reef ecosystems.
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Rising ocean temperatures caused by climate change are resulting in mass coral bleaching events and more frequent infectious disease outbreaks.
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This is terrible news for the corals.
They are sensitive critters. Getting too hot can kill them. And corals can’t swim to cooler waters.
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The rate of climate change requires a united, powerful community fighting in sync for the persistence of reefs.
Immediate and aggressive action to address climate change is critical.
Carbon already released into the atmosphere will continue to warm ocean waters to a level inhospitable to corals for decades to come.
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Scientists face a predicted gap between the threat to extinction coral populations face today, and a future ocean that is hospitable again to corals.
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As we battle climate change and its impacts we must buy time and increase ecosystem resilience to preserve the critical ecologic and economic functions that coral reefs provide the world. That is what coral restoration is all about.
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Coral reef restoration practitioners are trying to bridge the bleak reality of today with the coral-hospitable ocean we believe is possible in the future.
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Here is that good news: science shows that restoration of our reefs is possible and the spatial scale of success is steadily increasing.
How does restoration
help save
the reefs?
Reefs are in crisis.
We need to do more. Faster.
CRC's important role in global
coral restoration
CRC is the town hall of coral restoration.
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The place where the smartest people in our profession meet, creative solutions are spurred, methods are rapidly deployed, and networks are built.
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CRC is where the coral restoration community comes to learn, share, and accelerate practices and science.
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We promote indigenous knowledge and scientific methods.
We remove traditional gaps in collaborative conservation.
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We help scale interventions by bridging small and large projects, as well as research-heavy and operational programs.
We connect community-led programs and NGOs, climate activists and governments.
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Our Regional Groups, Issues Groups, and Ad-Hoc Groups share information and research to accelerate the pace of knowledge transfer.
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Without the CRC serving as the champion of the many types of practitioners, the field of coral restoration would become increasingly dominated by a handful of large-scale, high-tech projects.
Q: What stands in our way of a healthy coral reef?
A: Many factors including fossil fuel consumption, destruction of carbon-absorbing ecosystems, overfishing and pollution are causing the coral reefs to bleach or die.
Q: How can we save the reefs?
A: By repopulating target reefs with resilient, genetically-diverse, and productively-viable populations.
Q: Why is a community of practice work our best
bet to save the reefs?
Working as a community of practice allows us to save time by not reinventing the wheel. We are able to work globally, regionally and locally. And we can bring ideas from all differnet sizes of programs to the table.
Q: What happens if we lose the reefs?
Global coral reefs have already declined by 50% in 30 years! But we can't afford to lose any more.
25% of marine life depends on a coral reef system, whether they live there full time or migrate there at some point in their life cycle. 70% of oxygen we breathe comes from our oceans. The reefs support over 1 billion people worldwide and provide services worth $9.9 trillion a year.
Coral Restoration
Q&A
Coral Restoration Consortium is a chapter
of the International Coral Reef Society
Coral Restoration Consortium is a member of
of the International Coral Reef Initiative